Game News: Canabalt v2.0

I was sort of blown away last month when Semi Secret’s seminal endless runner Canabalt [$2.99] received a substantial update for the first time in nearly three years, but apparently that was just a warmup. Today Canabalt version 2.0 has hit the App Store and it adds in all the additional modes and local multiplayer functionality that Android and Ouya players have been enjoying for the past couple of years, and which were hinted at for iOS players way back in 2012. The additional modes consist of eight variations of the original mode, which is now dubbed Origin, and they all focus on a single element of the Canabalt gameplay.

For example, Box Tripper is (frustratingly) littered with far more boxes than usual, Invasion features an inordinate amount of giant, scary, death spike platforms falling from the sky, and Fractured has you running across mostly slowly-crumbling buildings. (You’re going to want to go into the game’s options in the Settings app and switch off vibration if you plan on playing Fractured a lot. You’ll thank me later.) All of the new modes feature their own leaderboards and achievements for both single and multiplayer.

Yes, local multiplayer is the other major addition in Canabalt 2.0. Every mode can be played with two players, who both run on the screen at the same. Each half of the screen represents the controls for each player, but to be honest, the “two-player” is a whole lot of fun played by yourself too. Trying to control two avatars at the same time is a serious exercise in dexterity.

Pretty much the only thing not included from the Android and Ouya version of the game are the 2.5D graphics that denote those versions’ title of Canabalt HD. I prefer the original pixel graphics anyway, so no big loss, but it would have been a neat inclusion.Canabalt is known for being ultra-minimal, and it’s really impressive how their can be nine total variations of the gameplay now that feel different enough from each other.

If you somehow don’t already own the grandaddy of endless runners, this latest version of Canabalt is the most substantial to date and should be a staple on any iOS device.